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Friday, March 30, 2012

Something Awful Painting Challenge - Oath Trek 2012

Particularly keen-eyed readers may have seen my occasional shoutouts to the Something Awful forums, or SA forum members. The SA forums are an interesting place to say the least, but their 40k and other gaming-related threads are some of the best resources on the net.

One of the long-running traditions there (going into year three, wow!) is the yearly painting oath thread. This year's thread is bigger and badder than ever!

What's this all about, then?

The oath thread is a place where posters can commit to painting x amount of models in the period of a month. If those models are successfully painted and based, posters earn a certain amount of points, which can lead to winning monthly, quarterly, and year-end prizes.In addition, each month consists of a 'theme'. If a poster successfully incorporates that theme into their modeling or painting for the month, bonus points towards prizes are awarded. I'll be participating, as will Mike. We'll be offering monthly updates about winners and some of the cool models we see.

Prizes, you say?

Yeah, you might say there's a few. Lifted from the thread:

Special Prizes

Today is a good day to diorama: Sometimes, the monthly theme
really gets those creative juices going and we want you to take
advantage of that! Turn one of the monthly theme's into a diorama
including your oathed model(s) and earn a one time bonus of 5 points!
You only have a month to do it in though! At the end of the year, the
judges will decide together who's diorama was their favorite, and get a
$30 gift certificate to Reaper Miniatures!

Guild of Harmony: They kindly donated 10 of their models to the
prize pool, and I'm letting the judges decide who gets most of them!
Each judge has 3 random models they can give out as rewards to people
they feel have shown exceptional effort. Maybe your painting has really
improved. You painted 100 models in one month. Whatever the judges
feel deserves a reward when there normally wouldn't be one. And that
10th model? That's mine to use to get this ball rolling! Whoever can paint the most variety in different product lines during April will win a Guild of Harmony Steampunk Dorothy! See the details by clicking here

Der One Wif Der Whales n' Dat: You might not always get to
finish your oath on time but goon Leperflesh is here to help you go back
in time and save your models! Re-Oath your failed models with a new
WIP (If WIP is not a valid one as described above, you will still need
another oath for points). Include in your WIP post, a bolded message
declaring how you're gonna go save da whales! One random person
who does this will win a pile of semi-random models or a gift
certificate to a store of their choice! Leperflesh explains it a little
bit down this post.

Generations:
Every month you finish a Games Workshop oath, you'll get an entry into
this grand prize. Inside is a massive bag o' bits compiled by various
people, currently weighing in over a pound!

Send in the Redshirts: Prizes and deadlines not helping you
finish your models? Every month, 3 goons who failed their oath will be
given custom avatars showing their cowardly gretchin ways. That's right
people. OATHBREAKER IS BACK!!!

Monthly prizes

Dragon Forge Design: For the third year in a row, you can get your choice of $12 of their awesome bases!

Reaper Miniatures: We have a $30 gift certificate thanks to Reaper that one lucky goon can win each event!

Infinity: They kindly donated 4 boxes of models, each for a different faction. To see what you could win click here.

The Grand Prizes

Dragon Forge Design: For the third year, you can get a $100 gift
certificate to Dragon Forge. They've been great supporters of ours
and you can load up on their amazing bases!

KR Multicase: Our other supporter for three years straight;
They're offering a double size KR Multicase with your choice of foam!
The number one transportation choice for goons and their plastic.

Secret Weapon Miniatures: They donated to all three categories this year, and now you can win a $50 gift certificate! Time to grab that tank?

Infinity: They also donated to all three categories this year!
Needing some terrain for your games? How about a District 5 Apartment 1
set AND District 5 Walls set for the interior? These modular kits can
be built in various ways to suit your gaming needs.

Wyrd Miniatures: Wyrd kindly donated a Sonnia Criid starter
(Sonnia, Samael Hopkins, 3 Witchling Stalkers), her Avatar of
Conflagaration, and The Executioner! An amazing Malifaux crew to start
off with or branch into.

Fantasy Flight Games: They did a big donation that'll be great
for people wanting to try Dust Tactics! One Grand Prize winner will
walk away with a Dust Tactics Revised Core Set, a Heavy Panzer Walker
Expansion and a Heavy Assault Panzer Expansion.

Privateer Press: They're joining the ranks of our awesome
sponsors this year with a grand prize donation of the whole Formula P3
Paint and Hobby line: one of each P3 product they have*! For details click here.

Fresh Coast 40k: Fyrbrand and company over at Fresh Coast 40k
are donating a battleforce or battalion to one lucky grand prize winner!
Take a peek at their blog to see what project they're currently
working on, and I hope one of those contemptors makes an appearance!

Tadhg: The goon who paints orks like you or I breathe has upped
the ante this year! Not only will you get 30 orks with a nob, but an
AoBR Warboss and 3 deffkoptas painted up as well! One day we will learn
the dark secret of his speed...

Is it smaller than a tricorder?:
This grand prize is a complete mystery! What has Judge Sole.Sushi put
in the box? Is it a mini paint mixer? A rulebook? 7 herbs and
spices? Only Sole.Sushi and the winner will know!

Look at all that stuff! Holy crap! There are some big-name sponsors giving away some big prizes! Infinity, Secret Weapon Miniatures, KR Multicase, Privateer Press. Freshcoast40k will be giving away a grand prize 40k Battleforce or WFB Battalion as well.

Those prizes are insane. I want in!

Well, I definitely don't blame you. I almost wish I was eligible to win some of those awesome prizes. (I mean, did you see what Privateer Press is offering? Every hobby product and paint they make!)

Anyone is eligible to participate, and any game system is welcome, but there's a catch. The SA forums are not free to join. It costs $10 to get an account. Some might scoff about paying for a forum, but it can be well worth it. The hobby threads alone are fantastic, and don't even make up 1% of the overall content available at SA.

If you decide to register for this thread, be sure to read over the forum rules very carefully! The forums are great in part because of heavy moderation. There's lots of rules, both written and unwritten, and the forums stay high quality because they're not at all afraid to toss out probations or bans. As long as you think about what you post and play nice, you'll be just fine though, and have access to the amazing content on the SA forums.

How do I start?

Your best bet is to register, then read the Oath Thread, particularly the first couple of posts with the rules. After you've gotten those down, get posting and get painting! (And maybe give FC40k a shoutout in the oath thread). Look forward to seeing you all there!